Fewer than 10% of students come from poorest backgrounds

Just 6 per cent of students at St Andrews University came from the poorest areas of Scotland in 2016Times photograoher James Glossop

The gulf between numbers of the richest and poorest students going to university has widened on Nicola Sturgeon’s watch, opponents have claimed.

Figures released today by Ucas, the admissions body, show that in 2016 less than 10 per cent of new students came from the most deprived backgrounds at the majority of Scottish institutions.

Scottish Labour said that there were 1,315 successful applicants from those living in the most deprived 20 per cent of communities, just ten more than two years ago when Ms Sturgeon became first minister. In the same period, there were 100 more university entrants from the most wealthy neighbourhoods.

Daniel Johnson, Scottish Labour’s education spokesman, said the figures for 2016 showed that Ms Sturgeon was “failing spectacularly” in her goal of…